Historical Perspective on Adding Drugs to Medicare

This article describes the lengthy background and debate leading up to the passage of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA). Full implementation of the prescription drug aspect of the law will not be completed for some time, and final assessment of its impact awaits a history yet to be written. Instead, this article summarizes the efforts of supporters until they finally managed to succeed after being stymied so many times in the preceding four decades.